Year: 2022

LATERAL GENE TRANSFER (LTG) is quite common in higher animals and can be large as bacterial-sized LTGs. "Some eukaryotes have extensive vertically inherited LGT despite barriers (the nucleus, the immune system, and protected germ cells)." DNA is transferred from mitochondria and chloroplasts to the eukaryotic nucleus. "These organelles originated from α-proteobacteria and cyanobacteria, respectively. LGT from bacteria to eukaryotes...is also...widespread, particularly from endosymbionts. Wolbachia endosymbionts infect up to 70% of all insects". " "" "doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003107 View in LinkedIn

LATERAL GENE TRANSFER and tumor formation in plants. The best example from bacteria to eukaryotes is LGT to plants from the bacteria Agrobacterium tumefaciens. This parasitic bacterium injects its genes into the host plant, and becomes part of the plant genome, usurping the plant machinery to make proteins, that are a carbon source for the parasite, and which also form plant tumors. This bacteria can also cause human cells to become tumorigenic in vitro. " "" "doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003107 View in LinkedIn

MITOCHONDRIA AND CHLOROPLASTS produce power in our cells and plant cells respectively, and appear to have been the result of lateral gene transmission from bacteria millions of years ago, and now are indispensable to our lives. View in LinkedIn

HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER: "Plant genomes have undergone rampant horizontal gene transfer (HGT), especially in the mitochondrial genome, up to 40% of the mitochondrial genes in the parasitic plant species Rafflesiaceae are acquired from their hosts via HGT. These transgenes are likely functional in their recipient species and in some cases appear to have displaced native copies in the same genomic location."" " http://lnkd.in/hSvCST View in LinkedIn

INTRONS ARE JUMPING GENES from horizontal gene transfer? "The alternative hypothesis is that introns are a kind of transposable elements which can jump in and out of existing genes which did not necessarily have introns from the beginning. A possible scenario would then be that group II introns invaded nuclear genes after the symbiotic event that created mitochondria and chloroplasts."" " http://lnkd.in/UQPVTt View in LinkedIn

MITOCHONDRIA AND CHLOROPLASTS were likely examples of horizontal bacterial gene transfers that entered eukaryotes and became a fixture. Both of these critical energy-producing organelles derived from parasitic bacteria are self-replicating and have unique structures, probably originally constructed against the host cell defenses. Without these energy factories, or a strong alternative, plants and animals would have very limited capacity today. View in LinkedIn

HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER is bigger than we thought. "The concept of horizontal gene transfer has clearly moved from a quirk seen in certain organisms to a driving force in evolution. The human genome contains genes from both archaeans and bacteria, and the genome of one organism thought to be primitive, Thermotoga maritima, was found to be one-quarter borrowed from other organisms."" " http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/243/eukaryotic-origins-revolution-in-the-classification-of-life View in LinkedIn

FLOATING GENES transferred from one completely different species to another species, by non-sexual means, destroys our simple concept of linear sexual gene transfer between members of the same species. A soup of highly evolved and interchangeable genes transferring from one life form to another is reminiscent of Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene (1976), a gene-centered view of evolution. Genes are the extraordinary repository of all of the knowledge, experience, learning, problem solving, and inexhaustible experiments of every life form on earth. View in LinkedIn

WE ARE GENETIC CYBORGS. Evolution is about innovation at its purest level. Innovation is the fruit of an infinite universe of biological and chemical experiments. Evolution is driven by a massive enrichment of our genes so we have a greater capacity to expand our life forms successfully. This gene enrichment is now a great deal more electrifying than our dear friend Darwin knew about. We, and almost every other life form, are already genetic cyborgs spliced together from different life forms, giving enhanced capacities. View in LinkedIn

CYBERNETIC AUGMENTATION. It's too late for hand-wringing. The stuff with electronic augmentation is relatively trivial. Nature's experiment is already in our deepest coding. " ""Today we live in a world of cyborgs--a cyborg society. Cyborgian technologies and systems pervade nearly every aspect of our modern lives."" " http://www.cyborgdb.org/sharpe.htm View in LinkedIn